Snowbird: Dig it

The beginner and intermediate skier’s dilemma at Snowbird has long revolved around access to the smooth terrain in Mineral Basin. Those steep from-the-top switchbacks of Chip’s Run were daunting, especially since the slower skiers were pretty much treated like slalom gates by the speedy rippers on their way to some extremo terrain. The tough-kids tram ride alone was enough to deter most aspiring experts from reaching the gentle slopes of Mineral Basin. So last December the Bird opened a one-of-a-kind tunnel of love for intermediate skiers; a 595-foot, $1.4 million bore that ferries less-than-expert riders under the mountain on a conveyor belt carpet moving at just-about-strolling speed. (They say it’s 1.8 mph, but that sounds a bit brisk.) A new high-speed chairlift on the Peruvian Gulch side of Little Cottonwood Canyon zips skiers to the maw of the tunnel, wiping the tram from the map for many intermediate skiers.Â
The unique twist on skier transport preserves view corridors, eliminates the need for lift-installation grading on the delicate flora of Gorilla Pass and – most importantly in my book – alleviates the crowding on Snowbird’s speedy tram to the steeps. Pre-tunnel waits at the tram dock could stretch into an hour or longer. But post-dig, Snowbird’s tram riders report maybe a couple times they had to wait in line this season. The tunnel has worked so well there are dubious rumblings of boring an auto tunnel between Little Cottonwood and Big Cottonwood, which would cul-de-sac Snowbird and Alta with Solitude and Brighton. But they don’t let dogs up Little Cottonwood (or snowboarders at Alta) -Â LCC is an important watershed for Salt Lake -Â Â so the idea of blasting an underground highway up there seems unlikely at best.